The COVID-19 pandemic, which camouflaged the entire world by mid-2020, slowed down the growth graph of multiple business sectors and made a few industries, like travel, hospitality, construction, and manufacturing, suffer a hefty loss due to the government-imposed restrictions on the contact-intensive services. However, as the effects of the virus started fading away in late 2021 and the locked-down restrictions got lenient and even withdrawn in certain countries to allow people to travel with all necessary precautions, the travel companies began re-entering the market with the hope of gaining the momentum soon. The worldwide withdrawal of travel restrictions has certainly made the hospitality and transportation industry witness a sudden influx, which is a result of the increased number of bookings done by travel enthusiasts, who were locked inside houses for more than a year, approximately. In a situation like this, multiple small-medium travel agencies faced difficulties in handling such high demands, due to the lack of manpower and efficiency. This is when, outsourcing became crucial, more than ver, for these companies.
For travel companies, which have a defined selling point, call centre services are quite beneficial. Though the concept of outsourcing prevailed in the hospitality industry for quite a long time, the transportation or travel industry, today, mandatorily requires assistance from the travel call centres, eyeing the constantly changing demands and priorities of the modern-day travellers. Services provided by experienced travel call centres are capable of gaining the trust of the customers, as they often trust the recommendation of those who have abundant knowledge and expertise in the particular industry. Inbound and outbound call centre services generally comprise cross-selling, up-selling, enquiry handling, billing support, refunds and claims processing, email and chat support, ticketing, refunding, schedule changing, loyalty program management and hosting of back-office services.
Benefits of outsourcing customer support services for travel companies:
- Efficient Service
Customers are given improved services through inquiry handling outsourcing. This makes sure customer grievances are handled better and all inquiries are answered on time. As a result, a sense of trust and satisfaction gets planted in the minds of the customers. In countries like Jamaica and the Philippines, the outsourcing cost is quite low and several other favourable factors are present. A travel call centre is considered dependable and efficient when it has inquiry handling and customer service teams, which know how to convince people and convert enquiries into leads. - Little To No Mistakes
In reputed call centres for the hospitality industry, mistakes are hardly committed, because of the thorough multi-layer training process they follow, to make the employees industry-ready. Besides, each process goes through rigorous supervision to omit the chance of any blunder. Hence, this is one of the most important reasons, why travel companies should outsource customer services. - Ensure Scalability
Travel companies with limited manpower and expertise, often find it difficult to meet high volumes of call and multichannel enquiries, that occur during peak seasons. When the job is outsourced to reputed call centres, every customer gets attended to, and calls, emails or chats get promptly answered even during odd hours. This is how travel call centres ensure scalability. - 24×7 Customer Service
Most BPOs run 24×7 voice processes like telemarketing, customer service and non-voice processes like email/chat support, back office support services including accounting, loyalty program management, etc., for travel companies. Some giant BPOs also provide 24×7 social media monitoring and multichannel and multilingual customer service for travellers from all over the world. Social media monitoring is quite crucial these days because modern-day customers are tech-savvy and very much active on social media. Hence, they often show interest in a company or inquire about the ticket price etc. by commenting on a post, put up on the company’s social media page. The 24×7 availability of customer service executives is extremely beneficial for travel companies whose target customers are spread across multiple countries with different time zones. This eventually increases the chances of sales. - Multilingual And Multicultural Support
Some of the best multilingual call centres, offering unparalleled customer service support, are based out of the United States. A leading BPO often provide call centre services, for the travel industry, from multiple locations across the globe with ethnically diverse agents. Hence, via call centres, multilingual and multicultural support is always provided to address international customers, which is impossible for travel companies to offer with an in-house team operating from a single location.The travel habits of people constantly change depending on the advancement of technology. Post pandemic, the use of technology has increased three-fold. With the advent of the concept of online hotel and transportation booking, planning a trip or vacation has become extremely quick and hassle-free. A lot of travellers, these days, prefer booking flights, hotels and even sightseeing online. After the pandemic, the elderly people consider booking channels, that are partially online and partially supported by call centre agents. Hence, it is extremely essential for travel companies to outsource customer support services to reputed call centres, to make sure they meet the constantly-changing needs of modern-day customers and thrive in today’s competitive business climate.
